Pregnant women are more likely to hear "It's a girl!" when giving birth during famine conditions than when times are flush, according to a new study of the 1959-1961 Great Leap Forward famine in China.
The study reveals a dip in the ratio of boys born per girl during the famine years in the country, Shige Song, a demographer and sociologist at Queens College of the City University of New York, reports today (March 27) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. It's not entirely clear what causes this dip, but evolutionary theory suggests that baby boys may be a genetic gamble for parents, and thus not the best bet when times are lean.
"Investment on male children is a high-risk, high-return game, so you want to do it only if you are in very good situation," Song told LiveScience.
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